INSIDE PREPS: Tuscaloosa Christian hits road for semifinal game

Andrew Carroll

Wednesday

Oct 23, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 23, 2013 at 11:05 PM

With a win last week, the Tuscaloosa Christian football team clinched first place in the Christian Football Association. Most champs would get the home-field advantage for the first round of the playoffs, but coach David Arsenault decided to do a good thing and help out an opponent.

Tuscaloosa Christian (5-4, 3-1) travels tonight to face New Life Christian Academy in Millbrook. Victory Christian faces Tabernacle Christian in the other semifinal.

The winners will play in the championship game on Nov. 1 at Tuscaloosa Christian, and Arsenault expects his Warriors to be playing.

"We’re actually doing a favor to our neighbor school," Arsenault said. "They put together a big thing for their regular-season game, and the opposing team canceled. They asked us, if we were in first place, instead of playing here, could we travel down there? I’m not worried about it."

When the two teams met on Oct. 10, Tuscaloosa Christian won 54-0. The Warriors beat Victory Christian 40-12 in Columbus, Miss., last week.

"My big thing is consistency," Arsenault said. "Yelling once doesn’t do much. If you say the same thing over and over again, it’ll stick, usually. Even after we played one of our best games of the year against Victory, I said, ‘Hey, we still have a lot of things we can improve on. We didn’t play a perfect game. We’re probably going to see these guys again, and don’t think it’s going to be handed to us.’ "

Caleb Waddell runs the offense at quarterback. Sophomore Hunter Sample worked at quarterback early in the season, but he developed into a more impressive running back. Sample gained more than 200 yards and scored five touchdowns against Victory Christian.

"Caleb has done a tremendous job for us," Arsenault said. "He definitely improved from game to game. He’s thrown the ball well.

"It was kind of a quarter-season change (for Sample). He’s very shifty. He’s not big, but he does have strong legs and he runs with a really wide base, so he breaks a lot of tackles. He makes good lateral movement, so he can make guys miss."

Boyd Banks has seen action as a runner and receiver. Gabe Foster, a senior, has also filled in at running back, along with D.J. Watson.

"We have a lot of young talent that needs to be developed, but right now Hunter is definitely our premier back," Arsenault said.

Arsenault described Foster as a "dominant presence in our league." Foster has played on the offensive line. Hunter Thrasher is a freshman guard. Josh Foust is the starting center. Arsenault said the offense didn’t have one bad snap last week.

David Pearce and Calloway Newman are tight ends.

Arsenault said he favors a speedy defensive unit.

Freshman Preston Pate worked into a starting role at safety.

"He’s shown tremendous ability to play the ball and make open-field tackles," Arsenault said. "He’s gotten a lot of turnovers, a lot of pass breakups.

"Obviously, Gabe (middle linebacker) is the most dominant defensive player in our league. Boyd Banks (middle linebacker) is the brain on our defense. Gabe can just blow up and stop the run game, and Boyd is very smart. He sees all those tight ends releasing. He’s very good in the middle. Our two outside linebackers (Seth Durant and Watson) have played really well all year."

Kegan Lee and Waddell rotate in at nose tackle.

"In passing situations, I want someone who can shoot the gap and penetrate," Arsenault said.

The Hillcrest Patriots can clinch a Class 6A playoff bid if they beat Minor in a Region 5 game. Hillcrest is 4-4 overall, 3-3 in the region.

"Our mindset is, we have to win," coach Scott Martin said. "Our guys have fought through some adversity this year. Some things haven’t ended up the way we would like, and we still want to right some of those wrongs. I do like the way we’re playing at a high intensity level, and I’m looking forward to an extra week in the season if we take care of our business Friday night."

Minor likes to throw the football.

"They’re scary at the skill positions," Martin said. "They’ve got receivers that can run by your defensive backs."

"We’ve got to approach it like any other game and play to our standard, but we know we’ve got our hands full," Tuscaloosa Academy coach Robert Johnson said.

Johnson said he thinks his offense can cause problems for Kingwood Christian. Keonte Chambers, Dustin Jenkins and Torrence Brown share the load at running back, and Austin Menard is a threat as a runner and as a passer. Trayshon Foster and Harrison Standeffer are receiving threats, along with Jenkins and Brown.

Leaders for the defense include Brown at linebacker, Terrell Bush at end and Kwuan Whitfield, who can play at middle linebacker or on the front line.

Holt players to visit RISE Center

Friday is game day for the Holt Ironmen, who will wear their jerseys to school. Before the Ironmen face Gordo, coach Kenny Crowe wants his players to do something to help others.

The football players and the cheerleaders are planning a Friday visit to the RISE Center, a facility that provides assistance to children with special needs.

This is the second year that Crowe will take his team to the RISE Center.

"I think they were very humbled by the experience last year," Crowe said. "I was trying to get them to understand that no matter how bad things seem to be for you, someone has it worse."

Crowe said his players will read and interact with the RISE students.

"I had a couple of kids break down last year," he said. "One of them had tears rolling down his face. But once they got settled in, they loved it.

"We have people come out and watch us every Friday night, win or lose. We want to try to give back to the community. This is a good thing for our players to do, and it helps out the people at the RISE Center."

Volleyball super regionals starting Friday

Volleyball teams from Northridge and Tuscaloosa County will be in Huntsville on Friday to compete in the North Super Regional.

In the Class 6A bracket, Northridge opens against Huntsville, and Tuscaloosa County faces Grissom.